Build Guide
=Circleight's Block Theory= Note: this was originally more edited but it was transferred to this forum Ok this is a thread about BUILDING of course. It is to help provide a foundation for people when they build and to create more of a flow. It'll cover hopefully alot of things and hopefully help people. Please feel free to post other advice or help me expand this. Now there are a couple main things that I believe define a structure: 1) Symmetry 2) Dimension 3) Accent 4) Texture Those are just four 'main' things to look at while building, or looking at something, there are of course many more ways of viewing them. 1) SYMMETRY- Symmetry is the arrangement of parts/pieces from side to side by a given point. Things can be Asymmetrical, Bi-symmetrical, and so on and so forth. All of it pertains to things being equally foldable by a focal point. In architecture, not everything has to be symmetrical , not everything will be, BUT symmetry defines a major line of the second main thing, 'Dimension'. Mainly, it will set the position for everything, because where you start is going to be built around, and focused upon. That is why I suggest to usually build a doorway first, otherwise things might not be symmetrical(doesn't have to be) It all depends on what you are building of course. Symmetry will start the patterns on your building, it will give options of how to form your building, it will overall set the path for your building. You always start with a point, and from there it will branch off as much as you make it go, but that point is the seed of your creation. On that point, where you start is 1, past 0 the idea. Point 1 is your first position, it is the super position for whatever you are building, even if you don't make a doorway, even if its a floor pattern or a wall. THAT is what will inspire more points, and make your build grow for whatever you are doing, or whatever you are planning to do. It is also important to have a plan, some sort of idea for what you will do, not want, but will. Your plan will be set, and then you start point 1. So now you will work around that. Say if you are working on a floor pattern, you will make some kind of pattern. Now on that pattern you can expand, and accent the symmetry you've made already(see accenting for info). The more you do this, the more "random" it will seem, but through chaos you will see clarity, everything has a pattern and it is in the underlying symmetry you set. The points/ the plan. All of this is what will organize, and start your project, it's the first essential step into crafting your idea out. 2) DIMENSION- Dimension is essentially the shape/mass/space of your building. It is the depth, range, width, length and height, etc of your building. Dimension IS your building, it IS what you see. So, it is mainly the most important piece aside from symmetry starting it off. The more depth the building has, the more you see in it. The more there will be to it overall. Let's take a simple entry way for an example. First you started with a door. Then, in it's perimeter is stone. So now you made a fairly BASIC doorway. NOW, lets expand that basic concept. Go diagonally from the stone in FRONT of the door and make it a different 'ACCENTING' material.( See the fourth primary factor for the info on accenting. ) So the stone wall was 3 blocks high, NOW make the accent block 4 blocks high, and do the same pattern as you did with the stone wall. It should be like the letter 'n' in this example. Now you gave more depth into your entryway, this is a very simple way of doing it, you can expand beyond this with many other materials and styles. You can add depth by repeating this pattern, but try and keep it the same MAIN blocks. Now that you have an idea for a doorway, it's time to give the building a shape. I prefer starting with a general plan for it's shape by making a 1 block high shell of it where you want it. There are many methods of making a building have alot of dimension to it, such as having curved sides or just pointed/blocky sides. Make the walls of the front of the building pop out FROM the entrance, therefore you'll give it more depth and volume. Adding various details to your project gives it more appeal and more dimension to it, so try always adding a detail, even to a detail itself. Trapdoors are good for details and they pop out quite nicely. They are nice for shutters or windows, whatever you want. A primary one would be slabs. Slabs are almost necessary for a building to have nice dimension to it. For the vertex of your walls, add slabs OUTWARD of the wall, giving it more dimension. Make sure to put it at the top, otherwise it will make the building look like it was unfinished or cut off at the top (unless you add to the dimension by making a roof of some sort) Also, things like archways make a building have great depth, and gives it a flow. That plays a role with symmetry as well. 3)Accent- Accent, a common issue with buildings, people sometimes don't know what to accent a block with so they either don't at all, leaving it completely monotone, or just use a random wool color thinking itll work well. To accent something, that 'something' must have a solid defined texture/color/theme to it. Does black accent white, or does white accent black? It's all just a balance, and the way you accent things will be determined by dimension, and will even GIVE it dimension. You start with black & white, then you begin with the primary colors, red, yellow, blue. Those primary colors will set off other colors of course, we know this. So, look at that exactly. Look at how yellow accents red to get orange. Look at how Red accents blue to get purple. To accent, take a specific block, use it however you may. NOW in parallel to it, accent it with another specific block. It must be parallel to it. Depending on which direction it is going (up/down) (left/right) Lets say you have a Cobblestone line going up and down. The height is 4. SO to accent it you will do the same but with a different block. Now to accent a block, you must go inward of what the first block type was. Such as the example with cobble, cobble would be the STRUCTURAL BLOCK. So you must go inward of that, and that is an accent of the cobble, thus giving it more tone, variety. 4)Texture- Texture is the overall quality of the building. It's tone, variety of blocks, all of that. It is essentially the detail of a building. Now there are many blocks in minecraft used to create detail. Some are: SLABS, FENCE, TRAPDOORS, BUTTONS, etc. Texture is alot like accent, so where you place these details and such, is all dependent on the symmetry, dimension and accents of your project. Basically you will be accenting what you've already accented, thus giving more detail/texture variance in your project. This has alot to do with dimension, and the point I made with slabs. There are MANY things to add to a building, in fact a building is NEVER quite finished. You can add lighting in so many kinds of way such as glowstone if you want areas to be brighter generally, or torches for lighting more specifically. Not to mention creating a glowing effect by adding water OVER glowstone. These four main things will hopefully provide more insight for your projects and buildings. To enhance your skill you must combine all of these elements into your building. They are all connected and fairly similar and work together. This is only a bit of my personal insight on the subject, I hope it helps for others out there, and provides some more insight for building. This is not supposed to dictate HOW to build but rather a way of thinking on how to go about doing it.